Monday, May 31, 2010

More facts and findings.

Post 499 - Here are some more facts and findings about the way we live:

Almost all the economic news in America is good at the moment: the economy is growing again; company profits are up and mortgage rates down; retailers’ first-quarter profits are 26% above last year’s level, and banks have the best quarterly profits in two years; home building is up and property developers are snapping up land that already has infrastructure in place; inflation is at a 44-year low; and the Chinese are buying US government IOUs again.

Thirty-seven percent of eighteen-to-twenty-nine-year-olds are currently unemployed, the highest figure among this age group in more than thirty years.

In February, the number of employees voluntarily quitting surpassed the number being fired or discharged for the first time since October 2008.

In a poll conducted by Right Management at the end of 2009, 60% of the employees polled said they intended to leave their jobs when the market got better.

25% of Americans have no bank account and 70 percent of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck.

The financial sector’s influence in Washington reflects its enormous donations and lobbying. Over the past two decades, it’s given $2.3 billion to federal candidates. It’s outdone every other industry in lobbying since 1998, having spent $3.8 billion.

The average annual cost of keeping a convict in the California prison system has risen from under $1,000 in 1970 to more than $52,000 today.

Los Angeles County jails are the largest mental health provider in the country.

Babies can receive up to 26 vaccines in their first year of life, a number which has doubled since the mid-1980s.

50% of your health is related to your behavior, 20% is related to your environment, 20% is related to your genetics and 10% is related to your access to healthcare.

Today, a cheap cellphone has more computing power than NASA's mainframes had in 1969.

Five years ago, 19-year-old Stefani Germanotta was working as a waitress during the day and singing in dingy New York clubs at night. Today, as Lady Gaga, she has 3.8 million followers on Twitter and 6.4 million Facebook friends. Her music video, Bad Romance, has been viewed over 200 million times on YouTube, and is the site’s number one clip of all time. And she’s sold over 15 million albums and over 40 million singles worldwide.

A video on YouTube gets 50% of its views in the first six days it’s on the site, according to data from analytics firm TubeMogul. After 20 days, a YouTube video has had 75% of its total views.

Right now as you read this, you're moving at 660,000 mph. That's the speed of the ground you’re standing on as it moves through space.

A recent survey found that more than 520,000 people in England go to work hung-over every day. The average Briton turns up with a hang-over three times a month. As a result, they report making more mistakes and struggling to keep up with their workload.